1. Technical Field
The present invention relates in general to data processing systems. In particular, the present invention relates to systems and methods for managing operator intercommunication in collaborative data processing environments.
2. Description of the Related Art
Before data processing systems became widely available, discussions involving three or more participants were usually conducted via in-person meetings or telephone conference calls. As data processing systems have become available to greater numbers of people, however, and as infrastructure for connecting those data processing systems (particularly the Internet) has grown, it has become possible for people stationed at different data processing system workstations to participate in a discussion without leaving their workstations and without using a traditional telephone conference call. Instead, the participants may communicate through their workstations.
Three of the most widely used systems for conveying messages between workstations.in a collaborative data processing environment are e-mail, discussion lists, and chat facilities. Of those three, chat facilities, which include such systems as Internet Relay Chat (IRC) and Web Page (or Java) Chat, provide the forum that most closely resembles a traditional meeting, in that a Chat forum enables three or more participants to receive and respond to comments from each other without significant delay.
Conventional Chat facilities are often used to manage discussions covering a number of related sub-topics within a particular topic. The present invention recognizes, however, that conventional Chat facilities lack means for clearly delineating the messages relating to each sub-topic. In particular, the present invention recognizes that conventional Chat facilities lack means for easily directing a message towards a particular sub-topic and for effectively presenting messages according to the pertinent sub-topic.
To address these shortcomings, the present invention introduces a method, system, and program product capable of receiving first and second messages and respectively associated first and second sub-topic identifiers from a discussion forum, displaying each message associated with the first sub-topic identifier in a message window using a first presentation format, and displaying each message associated with the second sub-topic identifier in the message window using a second presentation format.
In an illustrative embodiment, each message associated with the first sub-topic identifier is displayed in a first column in the message window and each message associated with the second sub-topic identifier is displayed in a second column in the message window.
All objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will become apparent in the following detailed written description.